Okay, I am tempted to buy a "bulb planter" that is powered by a drill and will go down to 9 inches... is this a good or bad idea for planting my potatoes, as opposed to digging trenches to plant the sets in?

This is only my opinion.....NO!!
It's a bad idea for your drill driver.

One seller adds this to the instructions: "Use the lowest possible gear setting on your drill and hold the drill with both hands."
Okay, so there you are with your safety goggles on, drilling with both hands, drill driver set on low speed. You drill one hole and then what? You set the thing down? Where? On the soil? Or maybe you will have a side-kick/helper to drop the seed potatoes in while you keep drilling?

Anyway, don't you have to keep pulling soil to hill up the plants as they grow? I'd go for the standard trench.

Edited to add: The seller I'm looking at also says this auger should be used with a CORDED drill; that you may be able to use a cordless type but only if it meets certain specifications - like an 18V Milwaukee.

If I had one, I'd probably never use it. It would be way more time-consuming than my usual method, plus I'd have to bend and stoop twice as often. That's too much knee-crackling for me.

Well, I envision Johnny Appleseed, with a bag over his shoulder... only the bag full of seed potatoes. A long extension on the drill bit and a contractor grade battery powered drill, the battery technology is so much better these days. They are even making some pretty decent "Weedwackers" that are battery powered. Drill a hole, drop in the seed potato, cover it with your foot, and move on. No bending or stooping, or laying the drill down. Of course I don't plant potatoes, and if I did I would probably use the traditional method, but I could see it working for some people. Plus, if you had many tulips, or other bulbs to plant it might be used for that too I suppose. Now for hilling up the potatoes at they grow...a battery powered hoe?

Well, this sounded like a brilliant idea late last night -- maybe not so much this morning! Especially when I started thinking about all the rocks in the garden... and then the fact that when i plant in trenches I don't immediately put all the dirt back over the potatoes, but keep adding it as the plants grow; not too sure how that would work out using the bulb planter.

Weedwhacker said:
Well, this sounded like a brilliant idea late last night --

You're so not alone with this statement, Sandy! I can't begin to tell you how many times I've said the same thing once morning rolls around!

There might be some connection to the saying "sleep on it," do you think?

@seedfork, i once had a battery operated weedwhacker, (not related to sandy b) i don't recommend them for teenagers. My son would let it spin till the battery ran down. Or else, tap it until it ran out of string.

Seedfork said:Well, I envision Johnny Appleseed, with a bag over his shoulder... only the bag full of seed potatoes. A long extension on the drill bit and a contractor grade battery powered drill, the battery technology is so much better these days. They are even making some pretty decent "Weedwackers" that are battery powered. Drill a hole, drop in the seed potato, cover it with your foot, and move on. No bending or stooping, or laying the drill down. Of course I don't plant potatoes, and if I did I would probably use the traditional method, but I could see it working for some people. Plus, if you had many tulips, or other bulbs to plant it might be used for that too I suppose. Now for hilling up the potatoes at they grow...a battery powered hoe?

You need to find an old Britcom called Good Neighbors (The Good Life in UK), and watch the episode where Tom throws his back out and still has to plant his spuds. He created an ingenious device that enable him to SLOWLY plant spuds without bending at all.

Mary, I thought I was the only one that remembered that TV show!! but I don't remember that episode -- I need to find the series on disc, the episode I remember most clearly was when Tom was trying to shoot the chickens...

I first saw it on PBS back in the 70s, and it was the episode where they bought an old loom. I remembered that for *years* and then found the series rentable on Netflix. This link is to the episode I remember from the 70s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

And I just realized that the one where Tom hurt his back was a harvesting episode, not a planting episode.

My favorite episode involved moving the blackberry (or raspberry?) plants.
A few weeks ago we watched the disc. Our library has a copy.

greene said:My favorite episode involved moving the blackberry (or raspberry?) plants.
A few weeks ago we watched the disc. Our library has a copy.

Oh yeah...the windbreak war.

I bought one at Ace Hardware year ago. Only used once, it get stuck when it gets bit deeper into the soil.

Thanks, Cora -- since you actually did try one, your experience has removed all doubt from my mind!

You're welcome Sandy.

Because my crop of sweet potatoes in feed sacks last year was so successful, i decided that ALL this years potatoes would grow in sacks. Adding soil as they grow. They also double as weights to hold down my black plastic pathways